Oraculum
by clairebfield
Summary: Eva Nequam is an Apprentice to a Magister and the member of a cult that worships the Old Gods, the original religion in Tevinter. The story is set in 9:50DA in an AU canon inspired Thedas.


The halls of the temple were empty, dark, silent and still. The air felt heavy, too warm but not unpleasant. She didn't know why she was here, only that she had to be somewhere. Someone was waiting for her in the cloisters. Her footfalls should have echoed through the empty halls, rebounding off the bare walls, but still there was silence. The air did not move, it was muggy almost. As she passed the Hall of the Gods she felt a wave of hot air against her face. Her black robes ruffled in the warm wind, her hair came loose and fell over her face briefly before being taken up by the warm gusts.

The corridor was dark again, the amber glow of the Hall was getting smaller behind her. When she made a turn it disappeared completely. She was bare footed and staff-less but that did not seem strange here. She had been away for so long that the feel of the warm stone beneath her feet felt almost alien to her, but gradually her memory of the place was returning. It wasn't as she remembered it to be, but then again this was not Minrathous.

This was the Fade.

She was magi, she had walked the Fade many times before, but this was the first time it had taken so long for her to realize where she was. The ethereal light that tinged every stone and doorway, every contour and straight, it permeated every part of her, it was present in everything she saw. It was almost an entity of its own. On the periphery of her vision was a door, an archway that led into the Sacred Cloisters. It was here she was due to meet with her Master. She had been aroused too early before, during her last visit to the Fade, and had narrowly missed their parley. She knew her injury meant her time in the Fade as a guest would end shortly and then she would be swept away into dreams where she was not so lucid. She had to hurry! The door would not come into focus though. Every time she turned a corner it shifted, sometimes to the wall on the edge of her vision, sometimes back the way she had just come. The hallways seemed endless and before long she found herself back at the glowing Hall of the Gods. This time she stopped and waited. Something was inside the Hall. Something that should not have been there. She heard a scratching, a scraping that offended every fibre of her being... the sound of claws scraping against stone. At first it seemed distant, emanating from somewhere within the glowing Hall. Then, all of a sudden it was behind her! She spun and found a desire demon suspended in the air which undulated around her as if it moved to make space for her presence. She smiled, a look of hunger in her eyes.

"*Meus sole votum est pro meus Filiolus vinco vos everto." No words left her mouth, Eva spoke to the creature's mind only. No words could be spoken in the Temple. Not even in the Fade. There was a reason the Archons had never been able to find the temple of Minrathous. Their prayers were silent. The names of their Gods Unspoken. Their worship was silent and secret and their magic so powerful it even extended to the Fade. Their Somniari protected them.

The demon did not recoil, but her laughter was mirthless. She had no power here, only Eva's God's had any influence here.

"Your God's are dead child. At least, five of them are. How long do you think the other two will avoid the Taint? How long before the Darkness of your Magisters touches them as well? How long before the Warden's eradicate their souls from existence?" Her voice was musical but its spell could not touch Eva. Not here.

Eva stiffened though. There was truth in those words. Urthemiel had been the last of her Gods to be tainted and destroyed. How long before the Darkspawn Awakened Razikale and Lusacan? The mage could feel her absence, the Fade seemed to have lost some of its beauty with the death of Urthemiel. As if in response to Eva's grief a roar filled the Fade. A tumultuous sound that shook the temples foundations and caused Eva to fall to her knees. The demon though was in agony. Tears of blood streaked her face which was contracted in an awful and ugly expression of pain. Its clawed hands were pressed to its temples, covering its ears - but it was no use. The roar penetrated its very soul! It shook the demon to the core, as it did Eva but Eva was one of the Primoris Incendia, to her it was the song of Immortality. To the demon...

Eva turned away before the demon shattered. It's fate was not to be mourned. The world was silent once more but the amber glow from the Hall of the Gods was somewhat diminished. She remembered how it had glowed two decades before, when Beauty still inhabited the world. An overwhelming grief enveloped the mage and she slid down a nearby wall, sinking to the warm, stone slabs. She wept. Head bowed with silent sobs. When she opened her eyes some time later there was an archway before her, where the demon had been floating. The spirit doorway was familiar to her, and she knew where it led. She dragged herself to her feet, surprised by her weariness in the Fade, but connecting it to the grievous injury she had sustained in the waking world. Time was slipping away and she knew she was already late.

When she stepped through the archway a man stood in the middle of the cloistered courtyard. From his stance and his rigidity she knew it was her Master.

"You are late." His words had weight here, and sound. They were no longer in the temple. Silence was not enforced.

"I was lost." Was all she could reply. Meekly she joined him beneath the Cloister of Toth, where they said their prayers and lit the torches either side the statue of their God. When the ritual was complete her Master turned to her and fixed her with his deep, green eyes. He didn't look like a magister here, he was dressed in simple red robes, bare foot and hairless. Here he was a Priest of Primoris Incendia, here he was her Master.

"You are late." He said again, emphasizing the last word. She knew what that inflection meant. She was not late in the Fade.

"Forgive me Master, I have been waylaid." Before she could offer her reasons... no, her excuses he spoke again.

"Where is the tome?" He held out his hand, which, like all things here, glowed with that disturbing, ethereal glow. She shook her head.

"I was injured... I...I cannot manifest-"

He turned away, disgusted. "Is there ever going to be a time where you do not fail me, child?" She was hardly a child, broaching forty years - a woman grown! - but in terms of the old religion and her Master she hadn't even learned to walk.

"How were you injured?"

"Bandits." Simple answers were best, she preferred his swift judgement and punishment.

"You are alone?"

She hesitated. Should she tell him about Caius? "I am now." It was a half truth. In the Fade she was alone, and for all she knew Caius had left her to rot. She didn't think he had, not truly, but she had to believe it enough for the lie to be powerful enough. He examined her, watching her closely now, the disgust from his features gone but replaced with intense suspicion. Why had she lied? Was it worth her Master's wrath to protect Caius? A man she barely knew?

Seemingly satisfied he withdrew his intensity. "Make sure the next time we meet you prepare yourself better for it. I must see this tome before you reach Minrathous!" She bowed, backing away, retreating from his ire as much as anything, and it was then that the winds came.

Their timing could not have been better.

The temple was gone. She was sitting cross legged in what appeared to be an ancient Thaig. Across from her was Caius. He looked different. Older... no... not older... worn. He looked at her intensely, demanding eye contact. She could not resist his gaze, a sharp intake of breath the only thing breaking the silence between them. No... that was wrong as well. There was something underneath the silence...a song...

It filled her heart, as the roar had filled her back in the Temple. She smiled and broke her gaze from Caius.

"They are here!" She cried, her face upturned to the dark ceiling of the Thaig.

"Caius." She whispered. "We have found them." When she dropped her gaze to the warrior he was no longer there. In his place was a dragon.

"Where is C..." She began, but was consumed by the dragons breath! Cold fire burned her to her soul, burning away the Fade, her mind, her faith, everything!

Darkness consumed her until all she was left with was a name.

'Razikale'

-

*My sole desire is for my Gods to vanquish you demon.


End file.
